An Ethical Foundation for 21st Century Medicine - Faculty

An Ethical Foundation for
21st Century Medicine
Allen R. Dyer, M.D., Ph.D
[email protected]
http://faculty.etsu.edu/dyer
“Ethics” from Greek “ethos” =
character, custom
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Universal
Impersonal
A-cultural
Timeless
Rational
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Contextual
Personal
Cultural
Historical
Emotional
Failure of Bioethics
(Bankruptcy of Bioethics)
Bioethics emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s to
supplant Medical Ethics
Emerging technologies involved society as a whole
--not just doctors and patients
Medical ethics was seen as paternalistic:
“Doctor knows best”
Brief History of Medical Ethics
• Age of Paternalism Hippocratic times - 1965
• Age of Autonomy 1965 - 1982
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Age of Regulation 1982 - 1995
Principles of Bioethics
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Beneficence
Non-maleficence
Autonomy
Justice
Evolution of Ethical priorities
1960s-70s
1980s
Beneficence Autonomy
Autonomy
1990s
Social justice
Beneficence Autonomy
Social justice Beneficence
Social justice
2000?
Technological superiority,
moral confusion
Medicine’s power to re-conceive such matters as birth, life, and
death creates the moral confusion we presently face.
Medicine’s reliance on technology and inability to articulate
shared values about those interventions are sources of that
confusion.
Medicine has shattered conventional ways of knowing the body,
the relationships among body, mind, and emotions,
the patient and family and
communication between doctor and patient.
Sharon R. Kaufman
The Healer’s Tale
Transforming Medicine and Culture 1993
Body parts
-Specialization isolates parts from the whole.
-Organs may be transplanted from one individual to
another
-The body may be commodified.
-Inequities may exist in the distribution of scarce
organs.
-Controversies exist as to whether cells from aborted
fetuses may be transplanted or used for research.
Body-mind emotions
Medicine is unclear about the relationship between
mind and body, psyche and soma.
Medicine is unclear about the role of emotion in
illness.
This division undercuts the physician’s traditional
role as a healer.
Patient and Family
Medicine waffles about the role of the family in understanding
the patient and about what information to share with the family.
2 US Supreme Court decisions (1990):
Cruzan: Missouri could continue tube feeding comatose
woman because family could not provide evidence about patient’s
wishes. (Missouri could ‘legitimately and rationally’ assume that
all families of incompetent persons were a danger to them.)
Ohio could ‘legitimately and rationally’ assume that all
families are loving and supportive and could therefore require a
pregnant teenager to notify her parents before obtaining an
abortion.
Ethics and the Law
We need more insightful discussion on boundaries of ethics and
the law in such situations as
- right to life
- meaning of life in end of life, beginning of life situations
- rights of autonomous choice and responsibilities that accompany
personal choices
- what matters does the state (State) have a legitimate civic
interest and what matters should properly be left to religious
institutions?
- For physicians, what are the boundaries of medical responsibility
and patient choice.
Truth Telling and Disclosure
Attitudes about disclosing terminal illnesses
have varied over time.
Physicians used to weigh each case individually;
many may have avoided frank discussion.
With newer emphasis on rights of patients to
know, physicians may avoid nuance in favor or
matter-of-fact brutal honesty.
Ethics Class
John Lantos Hastings Center Report 2005; 35(3):7
This year, I once again gave the lecture on truth-telling, or as I
have started to call it, "disclosure dilemmas." I try to review all
the situations in which doctors have information they might
choose not to share. Should they introduce themselves as
"doctor”? Should a doctor tell the patient it is their first time
doing something? Should informed consent include general
outcome statistics, or those of the institution, or those of the
individual doctor? We get into mandatory reporting
requirements and the tensions they place on confidentiality.
And, of course, we talk about delivering bad news, about
giving bleak prognoses. Each area has zones in which things
seem relatively black and white, and zones in which there are
shades of gray.
Ethics Class 2
During this quarter, I was also attending on the wards.
When I came on service, one of the patients was an
eight-month-old who was unable to eat by mouth. An expreemie, she'd had some birth asphyxia and a moderate
intraventricular hemorrhage. Each month, the doctors
tried to convince her mother that she would need a Gtube—a feeding tube inserted into her stomach through
the stomach wall. At each discussion, the mother
adamantly refused. So the baby had a naso-gastric tube
in place instead. She got all her nutrition, but it didn't
seem like the best long-term solution. I arranged to meet
with the baby's mother.
Ethics Class 3
I started the discussion by asking her what she
understood about her baby's condition. She looked at me
suspiciously.
"My baby was a preemie and had some brain
damage. They told me she might never see, hear, walk or
talk. But she's been doing better, much better."
"That's great," I said, "Babies are always surprising
us. What have you noticed, in particular, as signs of
progress?"
"Well, she's more alert, she smiles a lot more when
she sees me, she's breathing more off the vent. . . ."
Ethics Class 4
What about her eating by mouth?"
"Well, she's doing okay with that."
Our speech therapists had recently evaluated her.
They said her suck and swallow reflexes were totally
uncoordinated. They thought there was no chance that she
would ever be able to eat by mouth.
"One of the things I wanted to talk about," I said, "is
getting a G-tube. Our speech therapists think it'll be months
or years before she is able to eat by mouth. They're worried
that the NG-tube will just cause problems during that time.
Have you thought anymore about a G-tube?"
Ethics Class 5
Mom stared at the floor, and her body was tense.
"Look," she finally said, her voice now trembling with
emotion, "After my baby was born, I thought she was going
to die. When she was in the NICU, I took six months off
work and I never left her bedside. My baby had lines, chest
tubes, surgery. . . . ”
She paused. She seemed to be on the verge of
tears. ”Now, she's doing fine. I just went back to work. I
don't want anybody cuttin' on my baby anymore.
She's doing fine."
Ethics Class 6
Identify the conflict here.
Ethics Class 7
Back in ethics class, I described this interaction as an
example of a situation where it was difficult to deliver bad
news. A student raised his hand.
"But you didn't tell her the truth. Your speech therapists
told you the baby would never eat. You told the mom it would
take a while till she could eat. I thought you were encouraging
us to tell the truth.”
He was right. As so often happens when we go back
and forth between practice and theory, the cases undermine
the principles. We don't practice what we preach. Our behavior
indicts our teaching.
Observations on
Ethics Consultations
• Usual approach is to “find common ground”
• This usually means persuade patient that
“doctor knows best”
• Useful strategy for understanding: exaggerate
the differences.
• Use ethics consultation to “give voice” to those
that might not otherwise be heard.
• Identify sources of affect (feelings)
• Always ask “how do we know what we think we
know?”
Ethics committee
De-professionalization of
Medicine
• Medicine is defined by its
technology or expertise
rather than
• by its ethics or values
• “Professionalism” attempts
to reclaim medical ethics.
Generalization of expertise
“Physicians have little training in ethics, but are
deeply involved in making ethical decisions.
This is a ‘generalization of expertise’, the
translation of expertise from a technical area to a
moral area.”
Robert Veatch
The Hastings Center Studies
1 : 29-40, 1973
What is Medical Ethics?
“Medical morality is no different than normal,
everyday morality . . .
It is just that in medical ethics these familiar
moral rules are being applied to situations and
relationships.”
K. Danner Clauser
What is Medical Ethics?
Annals of Internal Medicine
80;657-660, 1970.
Rule-based ethic
(Deontological)
Categorical Imperative: “Act only on that the maxim
[motive] that you would will to be a universal law for all
rational beings.”
Immanuel Kant:
“Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals"
(1785) and "Critique of Practical Reason" (1788).
Code of Hammurabi
First code of laws 1795-1750 BCE
City of Babylon, Mesopotamia
Invocation of the Gods
Protection of the weak from the strong
Principle of Proportional punishments:
An Eye for an eye
A tooth for a tooth (of a free man)
“Put to death” for heavier intentional crimes
Specific laws for physicians, based on outcomes
what they should be paid if successful,
punishments if unsuccessful
End-based Ethic
(Teleological)
Utilitarianism: Act to maximize the greatest
good for the greatest number.
Utility = good outcome or happiness
John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Aristotle
2 Kinds of Ethics
• Quandary ethics asks “How do I decide
among competing alternatives?”
• Character ethics asks “What kind of
person do I want to become?”
Reason vs. Emotion
in Ethics
• Reason devoid of
emotion
Š Abstract
Š Detached
Š Out-of-context
• Faith (passion)
without reason
Š Superstition
Š Magical thinking
Š Supernatural
explanations of natural
phenomena
Knowledge and Belief
How do we distinguish what we know from what we believe?
Objective science suggests a detached knower, value neutral.
I suggest prefacing each declarative sentence with the words,
“I believe that. . .”
Michael Polanyi
Personal Knowledge, 1952
Beware the Moral Inversion
Moral inversion occurs when excess of morality result in
immoral ends.
We may suspect moral inversion if we find a dynamo-objective
coupling =
“Alleged scientific assertions are accepted as fact because they
satisfy moral passions and excite these passions further, thus
lending increased convincing power to the scientific affirmations
in question.”
Micahel Polanyi
How do we reason appropriately about our emotions?
Psychiatry’s contribution to Ethics
Eric Berne
Freud’s Structural Theory
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Superego
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Ego
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Psychological
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Id
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Biological
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Social
Guilt and shame as regulators of morality
Veronese: Wedding Feast at Cana
Eugène Burnand (1850-1921):
Les disciples Pierre et Jean courant au sépulcre le
matin de la Résurrection
Eruditio et Religio
Erudition + Religion
Science ≠ Religion
Knowledge = Reason and Faith (or belief)
Those who know don’t tell; Those who tell don’t know.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching (4th C. BCE)
Nisi crederitis non intelligitis: Unless you believe you
cannot understand. (It it a rare soul who knows what he is
talking about when he is speaking of it.)
Augustine, Confessions (ca. 400 CE)
“We know more than we can tell.”
Michael Polanyi: The Tacit Dimension (1967)
Case Study: Billy Budd, a Sailor
Billy Budd, a handsome, but inarticulate
seaman, is provoked to rage by Claggart, a
mean-spirited officer, who taunts him.
Though “innocent” in the sense of naïve,
martial law requires the death penalty for
striking an officer.
As Captain of the ship, you (Captain Vere)
must decide whether to enforce martial law
in this instance.
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4th Century BCE
1804
1847
1890
1975
• 1975
• 1982
Hippocratic Oath
Percival’s Medical Ethics
AMA Founded
Sherman Antitrust Act
Goldfarb decision ends
“learned professions
exemption”
FTC v. AMA
Supreme Court decides for
FTC
1890 Sherman Anti-trust Act
“Every contract, combination, . . .
or conspiracy in restraint of trade
is illegal.”
1975 FTC v. AMA
FTC held that the AMA was in restraint
of trade because its code of ethics
prohibited advertising.
A profession is defined by
• Its knowledge, technology or expertise
• Its ethics or values
A profession controls
• Entry
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• Education
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• Exit
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Ethics
The Oath of Hippocrates
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Invocation of Gods
Professional organization of medical “family”
Dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick
No euthanasia or abortion
I will not use the knife.
Sexual relations with patients proscribed
Confidentiality
Supplication to enjoy life and art
Oath of Hippocrates
Paragraph 1
I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius
and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods
and goddesses, making them my
witnesses, that I will fulfill this oath
according to my ability and judgment this
oath and this covenant:
Oath of Hippocrates
Paragraph 2
To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my
parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he
is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to
regard his offspring as equal to my brothers and to teach
them this art--if they desire to learn it--without fee and
covenant, to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and
all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who
has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the
covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical
law, but no one else.
Oath of Hippocrates
Paragraph 3
I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit
of the sick according to my ability and
judgment; I will keep them from harm and
injustice.
Oath of Hippocrates
Paragraph 4
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody
if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to
this effect. Similarly I will not give to a
woman an abortive remedy. I purity and
holiness I will guard my life and my art.
Oath of Hippocrates
Paragraph 5
I will not use the knife, not even on
sufferers of the stone, but will withdraw in
favor of such men as are engaged in this
work.
Oath of Hippocrates
Paragraph 6
Whatever houses I may visit, I will come
for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of
all intentional injustice, of all mischief and
in particular of sexual relations with both
female and male persons, be they free or
slaves.
Oath of Hippocrates
Paragraph 7
What I may see or hear in the course of the
treatment or even outside of the treatment in
regard to the life of men, which on no
account one must spread abroad, I will keep
to myself holding such things shameful to be
spoken about.
Oath of Hippocrates
Paragraph 8
If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it,
may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art,
being honored with fame among all men for
all time to come; if I transgress it and swear
falsely, may the opposite of all this be my
lot.
Confucian Ethic of Virtue
Humaneness (jen)
Compassion (tz’u)
Filial piety (hsiaso)
Brief History of Bioethics
• Age of paternalism
Hippocratic times - 1965
• Age of autonomy
1965 - 1982
• Age of regulation
1982 - 1995
• Age of partnership
1995 - 2000
• Age of community health 2000 + ?
Informed Consent and the nonautonomous person
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Children
The mentally infirm elderly
Comatose persons
Psychotic persons
Prisoners
Subjects of research involving deception
Patients
The poor
Medical practice
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OLD PARADIGM
(Modern)
Acute illness
Hospital based
Curative
Doctor centered
• Prototype:
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White male
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NEW PARADIGM
(Post-modern)
Chronic illness
Community based
Preventative
Dr-patient partnership
Multi-cultural
Ethics for the New Millennium
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One atmosphere
One economy
One law
One community
A Better World?
The Ethics of Globalization and the
Globalization of Bioethics
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International codes of ethics
Global pandemics
Health burden of poverty
Health disparities
Use of new technologies, eg stem cell
Role of physicians in war, torture
The smallest unit of health is
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The cell
The individual
The community
The nation
The planet
• The smallest unit of health is the community -Wendell Berry,
American (Kentucky) agrarian
philosopher
In the Wake of the Tsunami
Psychosocial Care of Disaster Victims
Tsunami survivors
Non-Western Sources of Value
Native American:
Healing is understood in terms
of man’s relationship with his
environment and his traditions
(Ancient Asian traditions):
“We believe in the land bridge.”
Linwood Tall Bull,
Cheyenne Medicine Man
Non-Western sources
Traditional Chinese Medicine:
Confucian virtues similar to Hippocratic
Based on restoring Qi or energy flow
(similar to Galenic view of body humors)
Balance between Yin and Yang,
the Chinese way of life
Techniques such as acupuncture, acupressure,
moxibustion
Complimentary to Western Medicine
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Non-Western Sources
Japanese:
Network of familial
interdependencies
Individual is seen as part of a
larger whole
Reciprocal responsibilities
Amae, to indulge and care for
Giri, (voluntary) social obligation
Non-western sources
India / Nepal / Tibet
Spirituality is part of all aspects of life.
Nepali / Tibetan lamaism:
healing rests on relationship with the natural and spiritual world.
Ayurvedic principles: all life is directed more to living well and
living healthful lives, rather than elimination of illness/disease
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Cycle of life: All life is eternal suffering.
Goal of nirvana (enlightenment) is not
eternal life, but to get off the endless cycle.
Indian philosophy and religion
• Indian philosophy is spiritual
• Neither humanity nor the universe is looked on as
merely physical
• Philosophy is not just an intellectual exercise, but
embodied in the spirit
• Introspective approach to reality: Internal not
external approach to physical reality
• Reason (necessary but insufficient ) with intuition
and experience of reality
• Synthetic outlook: “God is one, but men call him by
many names.”
Self-psychology
• Individual Self
• Familial Self
• Spiritual Self
Non-Western Sources
Islam:
First public hospital: Baghdad, AD 809
Islamic virtue: Free medical care at point of need
Small pox vaccination (Sina’s Canons of Medicine. 1037)
Direct relationship between worldview and health
(e.g. transformation of herpes from minor illness to major
contagion through sexual transmission)
Contrasting relationships
Traditional societies
Western societies
• Family and Group
Individual oriented
oriented
Extended family
Nuclear family
• Status determined by age,
Status achieved by own
position in family, and efforts
care of elderly
Relationship between kin Relationships between
obligatory
kin matter of choice
• Arranged marriage
Individual choice
Family decision-making Individual autonomy
• External locus of control Internal locus of control
Contrasting medical relationships
Traditional societies
• Physician’s decision
respected
• Malpractice suing rare
• Deference to God’s will
• Individual can be
replaced
• Pride in family
relationship
• Family care of mentally ill
Western societies
• Doubt in dr-pt relationship
• Malpractice suing common
• Self-determination
• Individual irreplaceable
• Pride in self
• Community care of mentally
ill
Ethics for the New Millennium
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Dynamic contract: Patient - Doctor - Community
Sacred conversation
Multicultural
Bio - psycho - social and Spiritual
If there be righteousness in the heart,
there will be beauty in the character.
If there be beauty in the character,
there will be harmony in the home.
If there be harmony in the home,
there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
there will be peace in the world.
Confucius, 4th BCE
I am …
-Post call
-Post colonial
-Post modern
Please e-mail comments or observations
[email protected]